Saturday, May 5, 2007

Rochester Knighthawks give up home field

News from earlier this week which we picked up last night at the arena...

They were the best team in the National Lacrosse League this past season, winning their last 12 regular season games to end the season at 14-2. Then they won two straight playoff games, including a 14-13 thriller over the Buffalo Bandits last weekend at Blue Cross Arena.

For the league championship, the Rochester Knighthawks will face the 9-7 Arizona Sting, winner of the West.

And they will do it on the road, Saturday, May 12 at 4PM at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

This all comes about because the brain surgeons and Rhodes scholars who run Blue Cross Arena in Rochester booked the facility for the entire week for a traveling circus. The Knighthawks then tried to move the date to Monday, but the event is scheduled for national television on Versus and has been slotted since last summer. Undaunted, Knighthawks owner Steve Donner then petitioned the league to move the game close to home, to HSBC Arena in Buffalo or the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The Board of Governors refused.

"It's frustrating because we picked this date about 11 months ago," said NLL commissioner Jim Jennings.

"Every building knew it, every building cleared it. We have major league buildings that have NHL, NBA, and arena football and they were able to clear the date, so it is frustrating."

Last year the Rochester team lost to Buffalo in the semifinals. Had they won that game, THEY would have had the right to host Colorado in the Champions' Cup game. Incredibly...Blue Cross Arena was booked for that day as well - they would have had to play that game on the road.